HowardForums is a discussion board dedicated to mobile phones with over 1,000,000 members and growing!

For your convenience HowardForums is divided into 7 main sections; marketplace, phone manufacturers, carriers, smartphones/PDAs, general phone discussion, buy sell trade and general discussions. Just scroll down to see them!

Only registered members may post questions, contact other members or search our database of over 8 million posts. Why don't you join us today!

Warning to All Verizon Craigslist/Ebay iPhone purchaser's!!

This is a warning to everyone who is possibly considering purchasing unopened iPhone's to use on Verizon from Craigslist and Ebay and other sources..

I purchased myself and my partner 2 32GB iPhone's directly from Apple, of course I had to enter my Verizon number to order it, I don't believe they are selling them outright.. Well I paid $699 per iPhone no contract.

When I got them today through UPS and went to activate them. It required me to accept the terms and agreement through iTunes and activate it using my account phone number, social, zip, and billing password and then auto *228'd it and activated it on my line.

So anyone who is trying to buy a brand new unopened iPhone be weary because chances are it's not going to work.

Yep, it's that way with any phone (well, obviously not the iTunes part). I had a guy from Craigslist yesterday tell me that you didn't have to activate it prior to selling it. I told him the ESN was tied to his order number and it could not be activated until he activated and then deactivated it. I don't think he believed me, but I told him that was the only way I was buying it.

Edit: Oh never mind. I guess he was just saying that if you see one for sale from an unauthorized distributor that you shouldn't buy it. I guess... But nothing here is unique to the iPhone.

-Frank

It's tricky for previous AT&T user's who may not have too much technical knowledge about how Verizon and CDMA works and may be coming over to Verizon. With AT&T you could literally take a stolen sim card and pop it in any GSM/HSPA phone including the iPhone 4 and it would just come right up

I spent most of my lunch hour on Mon reporting eBay listings with VZW iPhones for $1 plus $750-$2000 shipping! The sad thing is, some suckers probably bought 'em at those prices.

Do they get thrown off of eBay for doing this? Of course they are doing it to avoid eBay fees. If eBay was serious they would put a check in their system to warn anybody who is charging an outrageous amount for shipping, let's say over $100, for example. It would set off a big Red Flag.

Do they get thrown off of eBay for doing this? Of course they are doing it to avoid eBay fees. If eBay was serious they would put a check in their system to warn anybody who is charging an outrageous amount for shipping, let's say over $100, for example. It would set off a big Red Flag.

I think 3 violations gets them kicked off...not certain though. What p!sses me off about it is there are shipping limits in place for some things; I sold several video games in a lot but the max it would allow me to charge was $4so I lost money on shipping. So how in the world can one charge $1000 to ship a cell phone?!

I think 3 violations gets them kicked off...not certain though. What p!sses me off about it is there are shipping limits in place for some things; I sold several video games in a lot but the max it would allow me to charge was $4so I lost money on shipping. So how in the world can one charge $1000 to ship a cell phone?!